Gameday 2018: Blue Jays (24-28) at Phillies (29-20)

The Phillies are in first place on Memorial Day weekend. That’s pretty awesome.

Hopefully the boys can take the series against Toronto. If they do, they’ll be 30-20 after 50, good for a .600 winning percentage. Also pretty awesome.

Gametime: 1:35 p.m.

The lineup:

Hernandez – 2B

Hoskins – LF

Franco – 3B

Santana – 1B

Altherr – CF

Williams – RF

Kingery – SS

Knapp – C

Pivetta – P

Pitchers: Nick Pivetta (4-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. JA Happ (6-3, 3.97 ERA)

Former Phillie JA Happ has had quite the career. Now 35, Happ is nearing 100 wins (98-79) with a lifetime 3.93 ERA, 1,235 strikeouts and 521 walks. He’s been the definition of a quality starter.

Interestingly, Gabe Kapler has elected today be the day to sit Odubel Herrera. Part of it is the lefty-lefty thing, but then again, Nick Williams is starting. Either way, the boys will really need someone to step up today with their best offensive player on the bench.

Your Gameday Beer: I choose a red ale today: Blazing World by Modern Times. Hoppy but dry on the finish, it’s a nice little complex beer perfect for Sunday sipping.

4 Comments

Vernon Dozier

May 27, 2018 at 4:50 pm

Despite getting to experience first place for a few hours, losing a series at home to a terrible Blue Jays team is disappointing. I’m still not feeling the Hoskins in the two hole experiment – maybe someday Gabe will agree with me.

Toronto is a good hitting team but their pitching overall has let them down so far this season.

While the Phillies briefly enjoyed their stay in first place, it may not be the last time as it appears the Eastern division is up for grabs this season. Take note that the Washington Nats, the pre-season favorites, are finally on the right track to go along with youth oriented Atlanta Braves as qualified contenders. The Mets? The injury jinx carried over from last year continues to derailed their hopes for the season.

I too think Hoskins needs to hit lower in the line-up. It may give him some relief from pressure to deliver in RISP situations and just focus on his hitting mechanics and be more aggressive ion his approach.

These numbers aren’t pretty. From April 28 through May 28, Hoskins has gone .134/.234/.247 (.482 OPS) spanning 112 PAs. He has seven extra base hits during that timeframe. Just as amazing is that the overall slashline for the season from the two hole is .153/.283/.268 (.551 OPS). Yikes.